Appeals Court Says Religious Schools Can’t be Exempt From Maine’s Nondiscrimination Laws
The Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union celebrated the decision in a statement for upholding the state’s protections against discrimination.
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Religious schools accepting public funds are required to follow Maine laws that protect against discrimination based on faith, gender identity and sexual orientation, a federal court has ruled.
Crosspoint Church, which runs Bangor Christian Schools, and St. Dominic Academy in Auburn in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston in January 2025. The state’s anti-discrimination law to free exercise of religion, they said.
Citing several Supreme Court decisions — including one in 2022 that allowed religious schools to be eligible for public funds — the schools argued the nondiscrimination provisions create a “chilling effect,” that results in religious schools being excluded from a state program that allows other private schools to receive public education funding.
In a decision released Thursday, the court rejected both religious schools’ appeals to be exempt from the state’s nondiscrimination laws. However, it remanded a part of the appealed case concerning religious expression back to the U.S. District Court of Maine. Lawyers representing both schools expressed disappointment in the court’s decision, saying it did not honor the 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
“It sort of left the acknowledgement that even though religious institutions can teach what they believe, they would not allow them to then act and conduct themselves consistent with those beliefs,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for the First Liberty Institute, a national religious freedom organization that represented Crosspoint Church.
“That distinction really denies our clients … the full promise of the First Amendment.”
The Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union celebrated the decision in a statement for upholding the state’s protections against discrimination.
“Crosspoint Church’s and St. Dominic Academy’s arguments threatened to dismantle hard-won anti-discrimination protections in our state,” said Carol Garvan, legal director of the Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We applaud the court’s rejection of those arguments and its defense of the Maine Human Rights Act.”
According to court documents, Bangor Christian’s leaders have said that the school would to admit an applicant who was “openly gay” or presented “as a gender other than the one included on his or her birth certificate.” The school would also likely expel a current student who came out as either. St. Dominic stated it “” about a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity at the time of admission, but objects to school staff facilitating a student’s “efforts to change his or her gender identity” without parental consent.
In the appeals court’s opinion on the Crosspoint case, Judges Lara Montecalvo and William Kayatta rejected the church’s claim that the Maine Human Rights Act’s provisions that protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity require Crosspoint to affirm a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
They said the act prohibits discrimination against students and staff while still allowing schools to impart their religious message.
“That allows a religious school to “impart whatever religious education it likes,” they wrote. “This includes the message that marriage should be between ‘one man and one woman in a single, covenantal union’ or that one’s gender cannot be distinguished from one’s biological sex.”
That “still excludes religious schools, just through another means,” said Ben Fleshman, an attorney with Becket, the law firm that represented St. Dominic.
Maine towns that do not operate their own public middle or high schools may pay tuition for students to attend another public or private school. To receive those tuition payments, private schools must be approved by the Maine Department of Education and comply with state laws, including the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on religion, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Neither St. Dominic nor Bangor Christian had applied for the program when the appeal was filed last year, because they said doing so would allow the state to scrutinize their religious practices.
But according to Garvan, “any school that chooses to participate in a state-funded education program must play by the same rules and comply with the same state regulations as all other participants.”
“It is critical that Maine retains the ability to prohibit discrimination and advance equality in our state,” she added.
is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: [email protected].
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